Not in Our Neighborhood!

About a year ago a house down the street was for sale. It looked really nice inside (viewed photos online) and everything seemed to have been really well kept. We were really hoping a nice family would move in, but what do you know… it was a bunch of frat dudes! Suck-o-rama!

Ok, so they really weren’t that bad of neighbors. They had about a party a quarter and would occasionally try to get run over by my car when playing catch in the street/yard.

A few weeks ago John started to notice that they lawn REALLY needed to be mowed. So much that every time John would drive by he would yell “Mow that lawn you lazy scumbags!” Ok not really, but his blood pressure would definitely rise.

I noticed that it didn’t seem like anyone was living there, but that seemed odd, because it was in the middle of a school quarter, not during a break. I tried to tell John there had to be a reason because they would normally mow it once a month.

Then one day a worker truck and huge trailer showed up… and then a large dumpster. I was totally mystified at what kind of construction work they would be doing, as I had remembered the house looked so nice. They obviously gutted something inside but we could not tell what it was. I had a real hard time spying because they parked the big trailer right in front of the garage. You’d think they would have been more considerate!

So a week or two pass by, and it’s the same ‘ole same ‘ole. Then one day after my surgery I was looking out the window waiting for John to come home (cut me some slack, I was lonely), and I saw what looked like a new window in the garage. I couldn’t really see it (because of that trailer), but I thought that maybe they had replaced the side garage window. Was I ever wrong!!!! They had replaced the garage door w/ two LARGE French doors! Can you believe it? It looked really bad. John came home and said that he did not think San Luis allowed garage conversions like that and he wanted to call the city. I told him to call them and find out!

The whole reason the family moved out of our house in the first place was because of a failed garage conversion. When we moved in the neighbor across the street told us how he called the city and put the kabosh on their attempt. According to John garage conversions are for places like Santa Maria.

So the next day he calls city (yes, he's a total bus narc. You know, that annoying kid on the school bus who always tells the driver what you're doing in the back), and the inspector told him that he had already received “many complaints” about them converting their garage. He also said that based on other calls they have already sent an inspector out to the home today. I ask if the city ever approves garage conversions and he said never!

So what do you know??? When I drove by the house that day after work the garage door was magically back in place!! That same day! I was just mad I didn’t take a photo of the French doors when I had a chance.

The next day there was a huge stack of lumber in front of the garage. We are now wondering if they are going to add on, or just enclose the garage but keep the garage door intact. The Fratties used the garage as a pool room/gym anyway, so we will see if it continues to be the party room, or if we will ever see the door open again!